Genesis 45.1-4-Joseph Reveals His Identity To His Brothers
Thursday February 22, 2007
Genesis: Genesis 45:1-4-Joseph Reveals His Identity To His Brothers
Lesson # 286
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 45:1.
In Genesis 44:1-13 we saw Joseph testing the integrity of his brothers by “planting” his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack.
By planting his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack, Joseph is testing his brothers as to whether or not they will remain loyal to Benjamin even when he looks guilty of theft or will they abandon him in Egypt as they had done to him.
Joseph has not revealed his identity to his brothers at this point since he is not convinced that if his brothers were faced with the same set of circumstances as when they mistreated him that they would act differently.
Therefore, Joseph recreates what took place between him and his brothers twenty years before in order to test to see whether or not they have truly been changed by God and would if given the chance again, not repeat the same crime.
Joseph wanted to discover if his brothers would sell their father’s favorite and Rachel’s son, Benjamin as a slave as they had sold him who also was his father’s favorite and Rachel’s son.
He also wanted to know if they would again treat their father insensitively as they did when informing him of his demise twenty years before by letting Benjamin remain in slavery as they did with him.
In Genesis 44:14-34, we saw Judah offering himself to Joseph in place of Benjamin.
But before offering himself to Joseph in place of Benjamin, we saw in Genesis 44:14-17 that Judah admits on behalf of his brothers that they are guilty of the selling Joseph into slavery twenty years before.
In Genesis 44:18-29, Judah recounts for Joseph the two previous journeys that he and his brothers made to Egypt, which is recorded Genesis 44:18-29.
In Genesis 44:30-32, Judah emphasizes to Joseph the adverse impact on his father if Benjamin is enslaved in Egypt.
In Genesis 44:32-34, Judah offers himself as a slave in the place of Benjamin.
This evening we will study Genesis 45:1-4, which records Joseph revealing his true identity to his brothers upon hearing Judah offering himself as a substitute for Benjamin so that his father would not have to suffer the loss of another child.
In this evening’s study, we will read of the climax of the story of the account of Joseph and his brothers.
Genesis 45:1, “Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, ‘Have everyone go out from me.’ So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.”
Judah’s impassioned speech and willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of Benjamin and his father has revealed conclusively that his brothers are no longer motivated by hate and selfishness but rather by love for one another, possessing integrity within themselves and with one another and have passed the final test.
Therefore, Joseph could no longer keep himself composed and his pent up emotions could now be released, now that his brothers have demonstrated repeatedly through various tests that God has transformed their character.
When Joseph was seventeen, his brothers were disloyal to him and hated him and were insensitive to their father’s feelings and attempted to murder him and eventually sold him into slavery.
But they have changed in that they are loyal to their father’s favorite Benjamin and love him and do not hate him as they did Joseph and are sensitive to their father’s feelings towards Benjamin.
As evidenced by Judah’s offer to become a slave in the place of Benjamin in order to spare their father any more grief, the brothers demonstrate that they love their father and brother to the point of self-sacrifice.
The statement “Joseph could not control himself” means that Joseph could no longer keep himself composed and control his emotions as a result of listening to Judah’s impassioned speech and willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of Benjamin and his father.
Joseph’s brothers have repeatedly demonstrated conclusively to him by means of passing the various tests that Joseph put them through that God has indeed transformed their character and that now he can reveal his true identity and can be reconciled to his brothers.
Henry M. Morris gives this excellent comment, he writes, “No longer could there be the least doubt in Joseph’s mind that his brothers were completely changed men. He had subjected them to the most severe tests, and they had passed with flying colors. The testing itself had been a means of spiritual growth for them; they were more conscious than ever of the leading of God and their responsibility to Him. They were more aware than they had ever been of their own unworthiness and of God’s mercy. Finally, their troubles had brought them all closer together, and now they were of one mind, loving one another and their father as they had never done before. And then, with Judah making such a strong plea that Joseph allow him to take Benjamin’s punishment, so that Benjamin could go home free, Joseph could no longer control his emotions. Not only did the brothers not resent Benjamin, they were even willing to share his sufferings, and, in Judah’s case at least, to die for him” (The Genesis Record, page 619, Baker Book House).
Not only have Joseph’s brothers confessed their sin to God regarding the crime they committed against him when he was seventeen years of age but they are also obedient to God in that they now love one another as demonstrated by their concern for their father and willingness to sacrifice themselves for Benjamin.
The confession of sin to God the Father followed by obedience to the Word of God constitutes “repentance.”
1 John 1:9, “If any of us does at any time confess our sins, then, He (God the Father) is faithful and just with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from each and every wrongdoing.”
1 John 2:5, “But, whoever, at any time does observe conscientiously His Word, indeed, in this one, the love for the one and only God is accomplished. By means of this we can confirm that we are at this particular moment in fellowship with Him.”
“Repentance” means to go in one direction and to change your mind and go in the exact opposite direction and does not involve emotion or feeling sorry for your sins.
The word in the Greek New Testament for “repentance” is the noun metanoia, (metavnoia), which means “a change of mind” since it is composed of the preposition meta (metav), “change” and the noun nous (nou$), “mind.”
There is another word, which appears six times in the Greek New Testament which has an emotional connotation and that is the verb metamelomai (metamevlomai), which means, “to feel sorry, to regret, to feel sorrow.”
Metamelomai expresses a merely emotional change while metanoia expresses a change of choice.
Metamelomai signifies nothing but regret resulting in feeling sorry while metanoia deals with a change of mental attitude.
Metanoia concerns your volition and not your emotions.
Joseph commands his Egyptian entourage to leave the room so that he can share in this intensely intimate moment of reconciliation with his brothers and by doing so he identifies himself with the struggling covenant family of God rather than the riches of Egypt just as Moses did (See Hebrews 11:22).
Reconciliation and unity between brothers in the natural realm or in the spiritual realm is pleasing to God.
Psalm 133:1-3, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the LORD commanded the blessing -- life forever.”
Appropriately, Joseph commands everyone not connected to his immediate family to leave the room so that he can share an intimate moment of reconciliation with his brothers and not have the general public observing since this is a matter between Joseph and his brothers and not those outside of their family.
The phrase “all those who stood by him” refers to Joseph’s entourage.
Joseph expels everyone from the room since he was dealing with a family matter, which had nothing to do with his public responsibilities as a servant of Pharaoh and the people of Egypt.
Joseph also expelled everyone from the room in order to deal with the matter of the sin his brothers committed against him years before in strict privacy.
The eleven brothers must have wondered what was going on and what the lord of Egypt was going to do or say to them when he gave this command to expel everyone from the room except them.
Genesis 45:2, “He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it.”
Joseph’s loud crying was a response to Judah’s willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of Joseph’s only full brother Benjamin and their father and also expressed his relief that the character of his brothers has been transformed by God.
Weeping is an emotion and emotion composes one fifth of the human soul with the other elements of the soul being the volition, self-consciousness, mentality and conscience.
Emotion is the responder to what is in the mentality of the soul.
Therefore, Joseph’s loud crying was a normal function of his soul.
Joseph’s loud crying was an expression of his emotion, which responded to Judah’s willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of his brother and father.
This is the third of five times that Joseph weeps during this process of reconciliation with his brothers (See Genesis 42:24; 43:30; 45:1-2; 14-15; 50:17).
The Lord Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:6) and before His entrance into Jerusalem to present Himself to the nation of Israel as Messiah (See Luke 19:41) and believers are commanded to weep with those who weep (See Romans 12:15).
The Scriptures have much to say about our tears.
Ecclesiastes 3:4, “A time to weep and a time to laugh.”
The Lord has a record of our tears.
Psalm 56:8, “You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?”
The apostle Paul wept and Timothy wept.
Acts 20:18-19, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews.”
2 Corinthians 2:4, “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.”
2 Timothy 1:4, “longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy.”
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ wept.
Hebrews 5:7, “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.”
The Lord promises to wipe away all our tears.
Isaiah 25:8, “He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces.”
Luke 6:21, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.”
Believers are commanded to weep with those who weep.
Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
Joseph’s weeping was not only a response to Judah’s willingness to sacrifice himself for Benjamin and his father but also an expression of gratitude towards the Lord for reuniting him with his brothers.
Psalm 86:12, “I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and will glorify Your name forever.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
The eleven brothers must have been shocked to see this high ranking Egyptian official break into uncontrollable tears in their presence but they are really are going to be shocked when they hear what he is about to say to them all.
One can only imagine what the brothers must have been thinking when the lord of Egypt broke into tears.
Up to this point in the narrative, we have seen Joseph treat his brothers graciously and inviting them into his home, sent back to Canaan with abundant provisions (See Genesis 43:32 ¬44:1).
Then they were stopped and searched, each of them being found with their money in their sack and Benjamin with Joseph’s cup in his possession (See Genesis 44:6 13).
They acknowledged their guilt and all were willing to remain as Joseph’s slaves, but Joseph refused to detain any except Benjamin, the alleged “guilty” party (See Genesis 44:14 17).
Judah then made an impassioned appeal for mercy on behalf of his aged father, offering himself in place of Benjamin (See Genesis 44:18 34).
Judah and his brothers anx¬iously await a verdict from Joseph, one that will affect the course of their lives.
Without knowing who Joseph is or what he intended to do, the brothers saw this powerful leader of Egypt send everyone out of the room.
They could perhaps see the tears flowing down his cheeks and his chest heaving with emotion.
However, they could not detect the source of this great emotion.
Was it anger, which would lead to further trouble? How could it be otherwise?
Genesis 45:3, “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.”
Genesis 45:4, “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come closer to me.’ And they came closer. And he said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.’”
Up to this point to conceal his true identity, Joseph presented himself to his brothers as the lord of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh in authority and power in Egypt who spoke through an interpreter to them.
However, now, Joseph speaks in his native Hebrew tongue to his brothers in order to reveal his true identity to them.
The statement “I am Joseph!” was the worst news that the brothers could ever have hoped to hear and gave them more anxiety since it was bad enough to stand before a powerful Egyptian ruler who was angered at the theft of his silver cup, but to realize that he was their brother whom they had sold into slavery was simply too much!
Before, they at least had a hope that this judge would be impartial and that mercy might motivate him to accept their appeal.
But now they were convinced that this judge must surely be their enemy, whom they had unjustly and cruelly condemned.
How could they hope for better treat¬ment from him?
No wonder they were terrified.
Joseph’s first words declared his identity, which was followed quickly by an expression of concern for his father.
He, like Judah and the others, cared greatly for his elderly father.
The thought of Jacob’s grief was unbear¬able to Joseph as well as to the rest but he also cared for his brothers.
They must have shrunk back from him in horror, but Joseph asked them to draw near (verse 4).
The brothers are totally shocked and cannot respond with words to this revelation since they were terrified to be in the presence of Joseph who they committed an awful crime against over twenty years before.
The statement “they were dismayed” is the verb bahal (lh^B*) (baw-hal), which means, “to be terrified” and refers to paralyzing fear and describes the result of some terrifying event, something, which impacts the emotional and reasoning capacity of people, also causing physical manifestation.
Therefore, the original Hebrew text of Genesis 45:3 records that Joseph’s brothers were “terrified,” “paralyzed with fear” when Joseph revealed his true identity and that their physical bodies shook with fear at this revelation.
The brothers were terrified since they thought Joseph would exact revenge upon them for the crime against him since Joseph was now the prime minister of Egypt who now possessed the power to execute them as criminals in Egypt.
Joseph requests that his brothers come closer to him in order to reassure them and calm their fears that he would not seek revenge upon them.
Joseph’s statement “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt” is not a rebuke but an attempt to further reveal his identity and to relieve his brothers of the guilt that they have been carrying in their souls for over twenty years.
The brothers have been carrying the secret of selling Joseph into slavery for over twenty years and as a result have been burden with guilt but now Joseph reveals this secret so that they can be freed from suppressed guilt.
As long as the brothers live in fear of Joseph, there can be no intimacy between Joseph and his brothers until Joseph audibly says he forgives them and demonstrates that forgiveness by treating his brothers as if the crime against Joseph had never taken place.